We Can't Keep Her
by starthedog
Summary: Chell was a mistake. Now Cave has to Convince Caroline to let her go...


Sunlight filtered through the window of the small hospital room, casting a soothing glow over the tight-knit space. It was just about empty with only a bed, a make-shift baby crib and two cozy chairs next to the bed. All was quiet, just as a room in the maternity ward should be.

Laying in the bed was a brown haired woman in her mid-to-late 20's, cradling a newborn child in her arms. She smiled down at it tenderly. Next to her, sitting in a chair and leaning forward with his elbows on the bed, was the baby's proud father.

"Caroline," The man, whose name was Cave Johnson, asked, "Can I hold her?" He looked from her to his child.

Caroline looked up. "Sure thing, Mr. Johnson." She giggled as she handed her precious cargo over. Cave rolled his eyes; he had told her countless times not to bring the formality she treats him with outside of work. Taking hold of the baby he leaned back in his chair, carefully readjusting his hold to make himself comfortable.

"Hi there precious…" he mumbled softly.

As Caroline watched the father of her baby hold their daughter for the first time, she couldn't help but let her mind wander back 9 months, to the time when the baby had been conceived…

She and Cave had been the only one left at Aperture Laboratories at the time; the day had ended and all the employees had gone home. She and he had stayed behind to clean up his office- it was a mess, even by Cave's, a natural born slob's, standards. "I'd probably drown or get lost in there without help," he had told her. So she agreed to stay behind. As they worked they had talked a bit, but not much which Caroline had found odd. Cave always managed to get her talking. Just about done, Caroline turned to tell her boss she was about to leave, but was met Cave's lips to hers.

She knew it was wrong. She was married. She shouldn't have let herself let herself be dragged into what her boss was doing. But she couldn't help herself. She had let Cave take over…

She chuckled softly at the memory- she would never look at Cave's desk the same way ever again…

"Hey, I think I know what to name her." Cave's voice brought her back to reality. He was looking at her with a smile on his face. His face when he was smiling was soft and docile, covered in the wrinkles and folds of a man who had experience in the world. However, when he wasn't his face looked quite hard and unfriendly- it was these 2 distinct differences in his facial expressions that Caroline found most endearing and attractive about him.

Cave took her looking at him as an answer. "How 'bout 'Chell'?" He looked down at her again.

"Chell?" The name rolled surprisingly well off her tongue, despite its unusualness. She repeated the name. It was nice; short and sweet. "I like it. But it's-"

"Different?" Cave finished her sentence with a laugh. "Yeah, I know- Kind of wanted to keep with the tradition. Ya know you don't meet that many men with the name 'Cave', do you?" He laughed again, along with Caroline. "Besides, I wanted to stick to the 'C' theme."

Their baby- Chell- certainly was different; unlike her parents, who were both fair skinned, she had dark colored skin. Not exactly Asian, but close. "I wonder where she got the dark skin from." Caroline mused aloud, watching as Cave carefully got up to put Chell in her temporary crib. It was funny how gentle he was with her. Cave was always running head first into things, always being extremely reckless- even with his job. But as a father… Well that was something different entirely.

"My mom was Brazilian-American." Cave surprised her with an answer. "Chell must've got it from my side of the family…" His voice trailed off, and it was noticeably heavier than before. He walked back to his chair, head hung low. "And about that… Caroline, we need to talk." He looked at her with intense brown eyes.

Without waiting for her to answer, Cave continued, "Remember…" He took a deep breath, "Remember when I promised you John would never find out?"

Caroline cringed a bit at the sound of her husband's name coming from Cave's mouth. She never had liked Cave talking about him. But that moment of uneasiness was quickly replaced by a feeling of calm as she remembered Cave breathing those words into her ear. Covered in goose bumps, she nodded. "Yeah."

"Well, there's no way he's gonna believe she's his." He told her gruffly. "I mean, neither of you have a molecule of foreign in you."

Caroline stared at him in surprise for a second before saying back, "What do you mean? He's going to love her. He thinks she's his." She glanced nervously from Cave to Chell and back again. "I bet he won't even question it!"

"Damn it woman, you know as good as hell he'll question it." His remark sounded like a growl to her ears. She must've imagined it, but she knew John would indeed question it. "You may not know it, but I know more about him than you think, Caroline." She didn't doubt and was smart enough to not ask how exactly he knew.

"What exactly are you getting at, sir?"

His already intense gaze grew stronger. "What I'm getting at is we're lucky John's on a business trip, 'cause if he weren't we'd both be in really hot water." He pinched the bridge of his nose and broke the eye contact he had had with her. "Caroline… You have to let her go."

'You have to let her go.' The words rang in the woman's ears like a gunshot. "Let her go? Adoption? No sir… I-I can't."

He chuckled gravely, "You kind of don't have a choice…" Caroline's heart dropped. "I've already talked to Aperture's Orphanage-"

"Why didn't you talk to me about this?" The waterworks began. Why why why why hadn't he asked her about this?

"Because I knew you would say no." Still no eye contact. "I know you. And I know you love John too much and getting into a fight and a possible divorce would devastate yo-"

"But I love you more!" Caroline shouted her confession at him, leaning forward in her bed. "I love you and Chell and I want to be with you and have a family-" Her sobs choked up the rest of her words.

His gaze shot back to her. He loved her too- always had, always would. He had never told her; never suspected that she loved him too- even after what happened in his office all those months ago. "Caroline, I-"

"I don't give a damn what you say, Cave." She growled through the tears. Anger was boiling inside her- she wanted nothing more in the world than to slap him across the face and scream at him. "I'm not letting you take her away from me." She glared at him through the tears.

Cave was quiet for a moment. In all the years that he had known her, she had never talked to him like that. She had put up through periods of extreme depression and stress with him, trying to perk him up every step of the way. Even during the rare occasions when all the stress of work caused him to yell and scream at her, she had always supported him.

"Caroline I told you, you don't have a choice!" He yelled at her, but not too loudly. He had to remind himself that they were in a pubic place- any fighting, especially in the maternity ward, would be a big no-no. Trying to soften his voice, he told her, "I'm only thinking of you-"

"No you're not!" She almost screamed at him. "You're only thinking about yourself! You're just thinking of yourself you selfish jerk!" She sobbed again and added, "You just want t protect yourself because you know that if John found out he'd sue you. I don't know what for but he'd sue you and-"

Cave had had enough. "Caroline, I've had enough of this!" He slammed his hand down on the bed, ready to storm out of the room. Caroline clammed up but immediately started to weep again.

All was quiet for a second and Cave processed what Caroline had just said to him. He wanted to believe that she was wrong. That he was doing this for her but he knew that he would be lying to himself. He was being selfish. He was only thinking of himself…

A loud cry-not Caroline's- rang through the room. He looked behind his back. Chell had woken up and was crying. "Give her to me." He heard Chell's mother growl-sob. Without a glance at Caroline he walked over to his daughter and picked her up. The crying ceased immediately. She just wanted to be held. Looking down at her, Cave saw Chell open her eyes for the first time.

His breath caught in his throat. She had soft gray eyes. They looked strangely knowledgeable, like even at her young age she knew more than the world knew.

He turned around to face Caroline, who had stopped crying. "She has your eyes." Cave looked up to see the eyes he spoke of, but was met with a downed head instead.

Mr. Johnson walked slowly up to the large building, holding what anyone would guess to be a bundle in his arms. Stepping up to the doorstep of Aperture Orphanage, he looked down at his sleeping baby and tried to smile.

A heavy rock was in the area where his heart should've been. He tried to brighten up- Caroline had eventually calmed down and told him- well, snarled would be the better word Cave realized with a cringe- that he could her baby away from her. For a few days after that, she refused to speak to him, refusing to let him come into her hospital room. But when she checked out and had to give Chell to him, she had told him that she would be coming to work as soon as possible. At least she didn't completely hate him.

Caroline had desperately wanted to be with him. But she was home grieving with her husband. She had told him something had gone wrong during birth. Their baby couldn't have been saved. John's grief was real as Caroline's, Cave knew that, but it was for a fake reason.

He gently kissed Chell's forehead. "Always remember your mom and dad love you." He whispered, glad no one was around to hear him so soft. He placed her on doorstep, making sure the note was clearly visible. Swinging with all the swelled up emotion he had inside himself, he knocked on the door.

Then he ran. He ran away from a life he had never really wanted until it was given to him. He never wanted to do this again.

When the employee opened the door, she was shocked to see a baby on the ground. That only happened in movies. Picking it up, she also saw a resting note on the sleeping angel's blanket.

The employee brought the baby inside, handed it off to another employee and read the note:

"Her name's Chell. Please take good care of her. She's the world to me.

-C. Johnson"


End file.
